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Sun Life awarded ACA navigator grant

September 26th, 2015

To continue providing the service of helping Sun Life patients find and secure healthcare coverage through the Marketplace for 2016, federal Affordable Care Acting (ACA) funding was granted to Sun Life Family Health Center last month.

Sun Life is a subgrantee of the federal ACA grant, which helps the nonprofit healthcare center to keep a trained Navigator on staff providing community education and application assistance, as well as certified application counselors at each of the organization’s eight locations. The grant is renewable for three years.

Sun Life Family Health Center’s Lead Navigator Maria Villalobos Villalobos will be putting more focus on education surrounding the Affordable Care Act, one-on-one enrollment assistance, and working with community partners to reach the population in Pinal County in order to inform residents about local resources available (such as assistance with applying for SNAP, and AHCCCS).

The grant monies also goes toward assisting in the reduction of the healthcare disparity in rural communities, added Villalobos. She cited that, for example, a recent study from the American Cancer society revealed that there is an increase in breast cancer among African American women, and their survival rate is lower than their Caucasian counterparts.

“So as a certified navigator,” Villalobos explained, “I can provide better education through this grant as to what is available at no cost or low cost, which help in early detection and improve survival rates among members of the African American peoples as well as others in local rural communities.

“In addition, this grant also helps to provide community members with better access to not just doctors, but health insurance, as well as healthcare literacy and education. Because a lot of people don’t really understand the insurance business, because they’ve never really had it before.”

For more information about where you can talk to a certified navigator about better access to healthcare or for education on the Affordable Care Act, speak to Maria Villalobos at Sun Life at (520) 350-7559. For up-to-date information about locations where application assistance will be available between now and the end of the year, visit: